Reverse normal phenomenon
It's always interesting to witness phenomenons. It's even more so in something that's entirely man-made. Perhaps it's only because I don't understand the system sufficiently to not view it as a phenomenon.

That phenomenon occurred at work. It's not in the office, it's not in the people, but in the very man-made tool which many perceived as boring called programming code. Like many other seemingly boring profession which only the really interested find interesting, this tool is one of the many tools that allows the highest level of creativity. And like all man-made tools, it is also a tool that heavily focuses on logic.

Focuses on Logic? If a tool is focused on logic, how then could a phenomenon appear? Indeed. That's precisely why it's a phenomenon. A phenomenon is an exhibition of activity that goes against normal logic. Invest in a little more resources brings about an avalanche of savings. And saving a little of the wrong resource brings upon a huge load of inefficiencies. Till now, I still can't figure out why so, but that little investment brought down the processing speed from 27 sec to 0.8 sec which is the normal processing expectations. And the very reason that cause that surge is the normal way of speeding processing speeds up, or more technically, it's called indexing.

So I really don't know why something that is expected to speed things up could slow things down more than 20 times. Neither do I know why that little investment could bring the speed down 20 times.

All I can gather is this is something that can only be learnt and used as is the next time a similar condition shows up.


How much one can change
Something that can only be learnt? What happens if this "something" becomes a "someone" instead. It's not the first time I see how much a person could change over the years, but I still find it fascinating and unbelievable.

When I was in high school, some people whom I know from primary school have changed so drastically. Perhaps it's the different exposure, or perhaps it's merely a revelation of true self, where restraints in primary school have kept some qualities under the cover.

This same phenomenon happened again, as everyone progresses from high school over the years. There're yet another few people whom I totally don't recognize, if I were to meet them in the streets. Fortunately there's facebook which brings people together. It's only through this tool which I can then match the names to the faces.

All I can do is to learn that new face as is, to match that familiar old name and archive that old image of the person. It feels all so strange, distant and yet it's real. Perhaps that's how a person who suffers from memory loss would feel. Everyone is so new; everyone who was familiar is now a stranger.

If Yuan yuan chun becomes real thin next time, I sure will have the same feeling... only difference is that I'll be in great disbelief if someone told me that I actually knew this garbage. hee hee~ Or perhaps I should count my blessings that there isn't 3 of him around. =)